ITTC Project

Waveform-Diverse Sensors

Project Award Date: 11-30-2005

Description

The electromagnetic spectrum has become increasingly crowded in recent years as a result of the demand for higher bandwidths. Efficient use of bandwidth is essential to meet the needs of a wide variety of technological disciplines. Waveform design and diversity for sensor and communication systems has been recognized as being fundamental to fully utilizing the capacity of the EM spectrum and thereby enabling the realization of the DoD's "Joint Vision 2020" goal of full spectrum dominance. As a result, there are emerging and compelling changes in system requirements such as more efficient spectrum usage, higher sensitivities, greater information content, improved robustness to errors, reduced interference emissions, etc.

For radar applications perhaps the greatest challenges to attaining high spectral efficiency are the need for spectrally clean emissions that minimize the out-of-band interference and the complementary need for advanced receiver designs to enable the separation and processing of multiple radar and communications signals that mutually interfere with one another. In essence, instead of dealing with interference as simply a deleterious effect, it can be exploited as additional sources of information without the requirement of additional bandwidth. The potential application is to facilitate joint multistatic radar / multiuser communications which possess some degree of spectral overlap with the capability of accurately separating the multitude of signals at a receiver according to their respective modulations, polarizations, angle- of-arrival, etc. Besides considerably greater spectral efficiency, this capability would also enable sensor networking, aspect angle diversity, greater area coverage with shorter revisit times, anti- stealth sensing capability, enhanced Identify Friend or Foe (IFF), more flexibility in resource management, as well as numerous others.

This research will result in advances in fundamental theories and algorithms for the analysis and design of adaptive transmitters and receivers for multi static sensors. The research will provide insight into the development of novel capabilities for waveform-diverse sensors whereby the role of friendly RF interference can be shifted from being a source of performance degradation to being a means of obtaining additional information about the environment thereby enabling substantial improvements in surveillance capabilities. Such improvements cannot be accomplished through clever spectrum allocation techniques but instead require novel ways in which to process the information obtained from the environment.

Investigators

Project Sponsors

Primary Sponsor(s): Office of Naval Research

Partner with ITTC

The
Information and Telecommunication Technology Center at the
University of Kansas has developed several assistance policies
that enhance interactions between the Center and local,
Kansas, or national companies.

ITTC
assistance includes initial free consulting (normally one to
five hours). If additional support is needed, ITTC will offer
one of the following approaches:

Sponsored
Research Agreement

Individuals
and organizations can enter into agreements with KUCR/ITTC and
provide funds for sponsored research to be performed at ITTC
with the assistance of faculty, staff and students.

Licensing
and Royalty/Equity Agreement

An
ITTC goal is the development of investment-grade technologies
for transfer to, and marketing by, local, Kansas, and national
businesses. To enhance this process, the Center has developed
flexible policies that allow for licensing, royalty, and
equity arrangements to meet both the needs of ITTC and the
company.

Commercialization
Development

Companies
with a technology need that can be satisfied with ITTC's
resources can look to us for assistance. We can develop a
relationship with interested partners that will provide for
the development of a technology suited for commercialization.

ITTC
Resource Access

ITTC
resources, including computers and software systems, may be
made available to Kansas companies in accordance with the
Center's mission and applicable Regents and University
policies.